Publisher: Wizards of the CoastThe original 1985 release of and nbsp;Unearthed Arcana and trade; changed Dungeons and amp; Dragons and reg; forever by introducing new races, classes, magical items, and rules written by Gary Gygax. This new printing will appeal to nostalgic D and amp;D and reg; fans looking to add this classic to their collections. and nbsp;
The most complete version of Unearthed Arcana ever printed!
The original and nbsp;Unearthed Arcana and nbsp;was corrected and updated through articles published in Dragon and reg; magazine. Completists will want to pick up this version because it has been, for the first time ever, painstakingly edited to include the original errata and supplements created in the 1980 and rsquo;s under the supervision of Mr. Gygax himself. and nbsp;
Product History
Unearthed Arcana, by Gary Gygax, is TSR's seventh hardcover for the AD and amp;D game. It was published in June 1985.
Origins (I): Gygax Waning. Gary Gygax's major contributions to the D and amp;D game began to fade around 1980. A few last Greyhawk adventures appeared, thanks largely to Rob Kuntz coming on board in 1981 to finish up S4: and quot;The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and quot; (1982) and others. But other than that, Gygax just didn't have the time to produce gaming material, first because he was running TSR Hobbies and later because he was off in Hollywood, running TSR Entertainment.
As a result, others picked up the mantle of leadership in TSR's design studio: Lawrence Schick created the studio and brought on Basic D and amp;D designers David Cook and Tom Moldvay, then Gygax's hand-picked right-hand-men Frank Mentzer and Francois Marcela-Froideval led much of the D and amp;D design work afterward.
Origins (II): Dragon Rising. Though Gygax didn't have the time for major releases, he wasn't willing to abandon game design entirely. Instead, he began to produce new material for Dragon magazine. He'd had a and quot;From the Sorcerer's Scroll and quot; column as far back as The Dragon #11 (December 1977), but it disappeared in 1981, around the same time that Gygax's book-length contributions did. A year later, there was a resurgence: the Sorcerer's Scroll made a return in Dragon #55 (November 1981) and would continue through Dragon #75 (July 1983). But, this was a different Scroll. Gygax's early columns had often been editorial in nature, but now he focused largely on crunch.
Many of these columns from 1981-1983 would be ground-breaking, including: the introduction of cantrips in Dragon #59 (March 1982) through Dragon #61 (May 1982); the creation of three new classes, the barbarian in Dragon #63 (July 1982), the thief-acrobat in Dragon #69 (January 1983), and the cavalier in Dragon #72 (April 1983); and the debut of many (now classic) spells, such as goodberry (and other druid spells) in Dragon #71 (March 1983).
At the same time that he was writing these rules expansions, Gygax was also designing and quot;Featured Creatures and quot;, which eventually appeared in Monster Manual II (1983). There was discussion that Gygax's mechanical articles from the Sorcerer's Scroll would similarly be incorporated into an and quot;AD and amp;D Expansion volume and quot;, but those discussions ended in early 1983, when Gygax was bundled off to Hollywood; his magazine writing ended shortly thereafter.
Origins (III): TSR Waning. Unfortunately, TSR didn't do well in Gygax's absence. Due to any number of financial issues, layoffs began in June 1983 and continued into 1984. Gygax rushed back to the midwest to help his ailing company. Among other proposals, Gygax suggested that TSR produce a slew of new products bearing his name. For the first of these, Gygax and quot;instructed that [his] Dragon magazine articles be compiled and quot;. (Finally.) The result was Unearthed Arcana (1985) and mdash; and nbsp;a book that was so successful that Gygax later claimed its royalties allowed him to exercise enough stock options to regain control of his company.
Of course, Gygax still wasn't up to producing book-length RPG work of his own, due to the time required in running the ailing company. Thus, Unearthed Arcana was actually the product of divers hands, including collaborator Frank Mentzer, design consultant Jeff Grubb, and editor Kim Mohan. But Gygax's work is clearly predominent.
Two more of the Gygax projects were largely or entirely his work: the novel Saga of Old City (1985) and WG6: and quot;Isle of the Ape and quot; (1985). However the rest of the projects pushed out with Gygax's name in 1985 were mostly the work of others. Oriental Adventures (1985) was by David Cook, while the D and amp;D Companion Set (1985) was by Frank Mentzer, who also completed Gygax's T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985).
Together, Gygax's three authentic projects of 1985 form an interesting trilogy. and quot;Isle of the Ape and quot; looks back at Gygax's earliest take on D and amp;D, Saga of Old City reveals the company's future direction in fiction, and Unearthed Arcana offers Gygax's final vision of the D and amp;D game, in his last days with the company he founded.
A Different Sort of Players Handbook. In 1985, AD and amp;D had been around in a and quot;finished and quot; form for six years. The only hardcovers released during that period were books of deities and monsters, not rules. These were also the years of D and amp;D's greatest growth, so it's pretty safe to say that by 1985 most players of AD and amp;D never knew anything but the status quo. This is why Unearthed Arcana was entirely ground-breaking to those fans; it was the sort of revamp of the system that most players had never seen.
Now, players delved into what was essentially a supplementary Players Handbook, full of new character classes, new races, and new rules. The changes were so large, that Unearthed Arcana is now used to mark the beginning of AD and amp;D 1.5e, an expansion of the core game that also included Oriental Adventures (1985), the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (1986), and the Wilderness Survival Guide (1986).
Unearthed Arcana has a section for GMs too and mdash; a split that would be repeated through several of the later AD and amp;D hardcovers. However it was the player's section that really revamped and relaunched the game.
Continuing the Premium Reprints. Almost forty years later, Wizards of the Coast reprinted Unearthed Arcana in a premium edition (2013), with reset text and rescanned artwork. It followed on from a premium AD and amp;D 1e Players Handbook (2012), Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual (2012) that had been released the previous year; due to their success, Wizards was now expanding the line. The inclusion of Unearthed Arcana as the fourth 1e reprint showed its importance to the classic game. (Afterward, Wizards would finish the 1e reprints with two adventure compilations.)
Expanding D and amp;D. Unearthed Arcana is full of expansions to the D and amp;D game. Besides the aforementioned new classes and new races, AD and amp;D also picked up a 7th attribute, Comeliness and mdash; which was meant to be different from Charisma, but was never that popular. Unearthed Arcana also contains plenty of new magic items and spells, including the introduction of 0-level cantrips and mdash; an idea that's been much more long-lived.
Various existing character classes got adjustments too, the most notable of which was the fighter's new and quot;weapon specialization and quot;, which allowed improvement in a weapon of choice. It was a somewhat ironic addition, because back in The Dragon #16 (July 1978), in a much earlier Sorcerer's Scroll, Gygax wrote, and quot;There are a number of foolish misconceptions which tend to periodically crop up also. Weapons expertise is one. and hellip; For those who insist on giving weapons expertise bonuses due to the supposed extra training and ability of the character, I reply: What character could be more familiar and expert with a chosen weapon type than are monsters born and bred to their fangs, claws, hooves, horns, and other body weaponry? and quot;
Unearthed Arcana also contains a well-remembered and quot;Appendix T and quot; which shows what all the game's pole-arms actually look like. Gygax had written a similar article way back in The Strategic Review #2 (Summer 1975), with a small supplement in The Strategic Review #4 (Winer 1975).
The Forgotten Heroes. Unearthed Arcana introduced three major new character classes to AD and amp;D: the barbarian, the cavalier, and the thief-acrobat. Of them, only the barbarian has retained a major presence in later editions of the game.
The Resurrected Races. Unearthed Arcana also expanded D and amp;D's rolls of PC races by subdividing dwarves, elves, and gnomes. Dwarves now included gray, hill, and mountain variants; elves now included dark, gray, high, valley, wild, and wood variants; and gnomes now included svirfneblin (deep gnomes). Much of this work was probably in response to Dragonlance (1984-1986), which was similarly expanding the races of Krynn.
Of all the new races, it was probably the drow (dark elf) that was the most popular and mdash; and would soon grow moreso with the publication of The Crystal Shard (1988) and the introduction of Drizzt Do'Urden.
More importantly, Unearthed Arcana also increased the level limits for demihumans, capping their advancement at higher levels. This was a reflection that the whole AD and amp;D game was increasing in level, requiring what Gygax called and quot;more potent non-human characters and quot;.
About the Media Tie-In. The three new classes that Gygax introduced to Dragon readers between July 1982 and April 1983, and which were updated for Unearthed Arcana, also made it into the D and amp;D cartoon that premiered on September 17, 1983. Bobby is a Barbarian, Diana is an Acrobat, and Eric is a Cavalier.
Whoops! Unearthed Arcana was probably rushed out too quickly, due to TSR's financial problems, because it was beset with errors. Dragon #103 (November 1985) contained two pages of corrections meant to be cut out and pasted into the hardcover book. This errata was never included in reprints and hellip; until Wizards' 2013 release of the book! Dragon #117 (January 1987) then contained a complete Sage Advice column on the book.
There were also serious questions about the balance of the new classes, races, and items in the book and mdash; though this isn't the sort of thing that was being corrected by errata at the time.
About the Creators. Gary Gygax was of course the co-creator of D and amp;D. His other major publications on his return to the TSR heartland were the novel Saga of Old City (1985), the adventure WG6: and quot;Isle of the Ape and quot; (1985), and the mega-adventure T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985), the last completed by Frank Mentzer.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.